A 7-year-old Gary boy was shot in the head when bullets came through the living room window while he was playing a game. He remains in critical condition. more ›

The 16-year-old has been charged as an adult with multiple counts of rape, robbery and criminal deviate conduct. more ›

Over at the Reader, Chic-a-go-go founder Jake Austen follows up on his stellar story from last year about the lost Jackson 5 recordings by again interviewing Larry Blasingaine about his history with the group. more ›

A Lake County Judge is criticizing the controversial “book and release” program after a convicted felon on lifetime parole, Michael Drankus, was released from the Lake County jail. Drankus was released despite Gary City Judge Deidre Monroe’s written order denying his release and she has vowed to back out of the practice, reports the Sun-Times. The program set up by Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez to reduce the jail population through an early inmate release program has been scrutinized by other Lake Superior Court Judges including Nicholas Schiralli, Thomas Stefaniak and Clarence Murray. All disagree with how the program is being administered by the Lake County jail employees and do not think inmates should be released without prior notice to their courts or a request for their permission.Typically, defendants with minor charges are approved for the program, but according to the Sun-Times: more ›

Well, here's something you don't read about everyday: federal agents removed four tigers from a Gary, Indiana tattoo parlor. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cited the tigers' health as the reason they were removed: more ›

If you're going to go to the trouble of helming a large marijuana growing business, you might want to do your homework and come up with the best way to not get caught. Some growers in Gary, Indiana obviously didn't and were nabbed after their astronomical power bill tipped off the power company. The power usage raised eyebrows at NIPSCO, a gas and power provider in Northwest Indiana, who turned over the suspicious info to law enforcement. According to WBBM 780: more ›

Family and close friends of Michael Jackson are honoring him with a four-day “Fanvention” planned to coincide with what would have been the King of Pop's 52nd birthday. The Fanvention will be August 26th through 29th at the Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza in Merrillville, just south of the singer's hometown of Gary, Indiana. Ticket packages went on sale Monday and include a four-night stay at the Radisson and range from $1,013 for a single person to $2,767 for a group of four. Event organizers expect 15,000 fans from all over the world to attend. more ›

• Prosecutors raised the amount that Chicago Police Sgt. John Pallohusky has been accused of stealing from the Chicago Police Sergeants' Association; previously listed as $600,000, it was increased to almost $1 million. Pallohusky faces charges of with felony theft and money laundering.
• The Washington Post is closing several bureaus, including the one here in Chicago, in an attempt to save money.
• The owner of a pair of Gary, Indiana casinos has filed for bankruptcy as he awaits a decision by the state about allowing casinos to be built on land.

A woman in Gary, Ind. claims she was pulled off her motorized scooter by an off-duty Gary Police Department volunteer officer after leaving a friendly game of bingo and accused of stealing bingo cards. Thelma Fannin filed a lawsuit against the Gary Housing Authority and three off-duty Gary emergency officials. more ›

A Tuesday podcast for you this week - we get to take the holiday off just like the next guy but we're back to work just like everyone else today. (But we're simply giddy about sneaking out early to go see O!) In this podcast, Christine from Lynfred Winery helps us hash through the consequences of the new excise tax on alcohol in Illinois, Lauri Apple takes us through Gary one more time as we recap the process of getting those stellar photos from last week's set of posts, and Red Hot Annie of Vaudezilla tells us about the fallout from Saturday's Lebowski-themed "Rollin' Outta Here Naked" show. more ›

When Michael Jackson's father, Joe, appeared at last month's tribute to his son in their former hometown of Gary, Indiana, it was, apparently, for a price. Seems that Jackson's fee is included in a $5,000 bill the city of Gary has to pay, but Mayor Rudy Clay insists that once other bills are collected and donations counted, the city will actually profit from the celebration: "It turned out beautiful and great and we're not using taxpayers' money, so we should be given a blue ribbon for prudence." [CBS 2] more ›

The citizens of Gary, Indiana aren't happy today, but at least their garbage is getting picked up again. By a vote of 5-4, the Gary City Council voted to approve a contract that would continue to allow a private company to pick up the city's garbage at the cost of $12 per month fee for the citizens. Gary Mayor Rudy Clay reasoned that privatizing garbage collection was cheaper for the city - the decision eliminated almost 50 city jobs. [WBEZ] more ›

If there's something of a stench coming from the direction of Gary, Indiana, it's not another factory or plant. Rather, it's the trash, which hasn't been collected in a week. WBEZ has more as does the Tribune. At issue is Gary Mayor Rudy Clay's insistence on hiring a private firm to do the work in spite of protests from residents to the contrary. Hmmm, where have we heard that before? more ›

The crowd turned out to the Steel Yard, a minor league baseball stadium, in Gary, Indiana last night to pay tribute to the town's most famous native son, Michael Jackson. Check out the pictures above and read recaps of the evening here and here. more ›

Fox 32 is reporting Michael Jackson's father Joe Jackson, as well as other unnamed family members, will be at tomorrow's memorial for the dead pop singer at Gary, Indiana's baseball stadium. Meanwhile, that House resolution for Michael Jackson? Nope, not gonna happen. more ›

[via CBN]: more ›

Gary, Indiana mayor Rudy Clay has announced that Michael Jackson's hometown will hold a memorial service for the dead pop star on July 10. The service will be held at the baseball stadium Jackson visited on his last visit home in 2003, The Steel Yard; the stadium holds around 6,000 people. Never one to turn down a chance to talk in front of cameras, Clay has also called for Jackson to be buried in Gary and seems to have designs on turning Gary into something of a "mecca" for Jackson fans. We don't think the Jackson family home has quite the same appeal as Graceland, though. [WBBM] more ›

• To absolutely no one's surprise, when Mayor Daley addressed that controversial Olympic guarantee agreement at a press conference today, he only confused everyone more than they were before.
• A 17-year-old was arrested this afternoon in connection with the shooting death of nine-year-old Chastity Turner.
• For the third time, Juan Rivera has been sentenced to life in jail for the 1992 murder of Holly Staker.

As we mentioned earlier today, the citizens of Gary, Indiana are mourning their most popular native son, the King of Pop Michael Jackson. What happened when Jackson came back in June 2003 for a visit? One word: chaos. And then check out a performance of "Human Nature" during the Chicago stop of 1984's Victory Tour. The Chicago stops consisted of three shows from October 12 through 14 at Comiskey Park. After the jump is one more Michael Jackson-related video featuring a song written but not sung by Jackson, just for the hell of it. more ›

As the world reels from the unexpected death of pop star Michael Jackson, fans in his hometown of Gary are flocking to his childhood home to pay homage to the fallen singer. Jackson was born in Gary in 1958 and first started performing with his brothers at nightclub Mr. Lucky's in 1964. Jackson left Gary in 1969. According to the Tribune: more ›

One last, self-indulgent note before we bow out for the day. Chicagoist went live on May 10, 2004 featuring a design you can see above (via the Wayback Machine). Since then, we've had ups and downs but it's been one hell of a ride. Five years is an eternity in internet time, so thanks to Jen, Jake and all our benefactors in NYC, thanks to Rachelle and Margaret for getting the ball rolling here, thanks to every single writer who has posted - past and present - for your hard work, and last but most importantly, thanks to all of you readers who keep coming back every day. We hope to see you tomorrow night at our celebration, and we'll see you back here next week as we start the next five years. - M.G. more ›

• Amid the latest controversy for Sen. Roland Burris comes word his counterpart, Sen. Dick Durbin, will not support Burris in the 2010 election.
• A judge ruled that residents near Grant Park who oppose the new Children's Museum were given proper notice of the new plans.
• Strange story out of Gary where four bodies were found in a vacant funeral home that was recently sold at a tax sale.

Apparently, Northwest Indiana has a thing for replicas of the Statue of Liberty. Community activist Jim Nowacki is leading the charge in Gary to raise funds to repair an eight-foot-tall copper replica of Lady Liberty that was damaged during a storm last year. The statue - one of 200 that were distributed at different sites around the country in the 1950s courtesy of the Boy Scouts - used to stand at the entrance to U.S. Steel and repairs will cost between $8,000 and $10,000. Lest we forget, Hammond has its own Statue of Liberty replica, but nowhere to put it after a structural engineer told the city the foam replica was not structurally sound enough to survive the windy Wolf Lake location. [WBBM/AP] more ›

A 17-year-old girl is suing her high school in Lebanon, Indiana because they refused to let her wear a tuxedo to her high school prom. The student says she is a lesbian and doesn't wear dresses because they represent a sexual identity she rejects. The principal at the high school, located northwest of Indianapolis, claims that there is a special dress code for the prom that requires female students to wear a formal gown, but the ACLU of Indiana--which filed the claim on her behalf--say that the policy violates federal law because the school receives federal funding and because it violates her right of expression. more ›

• Roland Burris will be sworn in as Illinois' junior senator Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. (Chicago time) by Vice President Dick Cheney.
• Chicago's "Debonair Bandit", suspected of up to five area bank robberies, was arrested earlier today in Atlanta.
• Work on the city's Michigan Ave. Bridge began yesterday and will interrupt pedestrian traffic likely until June.

Now that Early Voting Season has come to a close in Illinois, they've counted up the ballots, and a metric shitload of people turned out to make their mark. (Just the ballots have been counted - the actual votes won't be counted 'til election day.) ABC-7 reports that nearly half a million in Indiana, another half-million voters in Cook County, and about 285,000 in the collar counties all voted early, resulting in lines that had wait times of two hours in some cases. And we thought our ten minute wait was surprising a few weeks ago. more ›

A Jackson 5 museum is in the preliminary planning stages in Gary, but it got a visibility boost after patriarch Joe Jackson announced his support for the project yesteray. So far, there's no groundbreaking date and no timeline for completion. In other words, people are sort of talking about maybe doing a museum or something. The proposed museum would be built near I-80 on city-owned property, and might include the Jackson family's old house. more ›

From cock fighting to dog fighting. A Gary, Indian, firefighter will spend two years in prison after he was found guilty for operating a dog fighting ring. more ›

We've been looking for an excuse all day to post about ManBabies, the unsettling yet hypnotic not-quite-a-meme in which intrepid photoshoppers switch the heads on photos of men holding babies. Creepy! more ›

Another sign that the economy is falling out of the sky? Skybus ceased all operations at the close of business yesterday. This is the second airline servicing the Chicago area to shut down this week. Skybus had just begun service out of Gary not even a month ago. Their actions leave Gary without any scheduled airline service. more ›